New contract takes him through 2016-17 season

Apr. 5, 2011

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CINCINNATI - University of Cincinnati basketball coach Mick Cronin has reached an agreement on a 3-year contract extension at $1.25 million a year that takes him through the 2016-17 season, school officials confirmed today.

The Enquirer originally reported the contract was a six-year extension through 2020, based on information supplied by Cronin.

“I’m a Bearcat and have always been a Bearcat,” Cronin said via text message. “I love Cincinnati and rebuilding our program for our university and fans has been the most rewarding experience of my professional career.

“I am honored to be the coach and I am focused on the future of our program and want to thank everyone that has been so supporting of our rebuilding process.”

Cronin, who just completed his fifth year as UC’s head coach, took the Bearcats to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2005 this past season, leading UC to a 26-9 record, 11-7 in the Big East Conference.

He had three years remaining on his previous contract, which was last extended in 2009 without a salary increase. Cronin’s annual compensation for that contract was $900,000.

In recent weeks, Cronin, 39, has been mentioned as a candidate for coaching vacancies at Arkansas, Missouri and North Carolina State.

“My intent is to retire here,” he said Monday. “It’s not about money. It’s about being happy.”

Cronin, a UC graduate who began his college career at UC under Bob Huggins, inherited a program with only one scholarship player when he was hired in 2006 to replace interim head coach Andy Kennedy.

The Bearcats have improved their win total each year under Cronin. They went to the National Invitation Tournament in 2010 and to the NCA Tournament this season where they beat Missouri in the second round before losing to Connecticut in the third round.

Cronin said shortly after the Bearcats lost to UConn that he would like to see improvements in the basketball program’s infrastructure to enable the Bearcats to compete successfully in the Big East. He specifically mentioned Fifth Third Arena and the UC practice gym.

UC continues to study ways to improve Fifth Third. Cronin said he and the school have raised about half of the $125,000 needed to improve the sound issues in the practice gym and to upgrade it with logos and other amenities.

Because he has been around the UC program for so long, Cronin said, he understands better than anyone the financial limitations the UC athletic department must deal and is willing to work within those limitations while trying to expand them, even if that means he has to raise the money himself.

“If I have to raise a lot of money, that’s OK,” Cronin said. “It’s a small price to pay to coach where I want to coach.”

Cronin cited as an example the fact that when he arrived at UC, the Bearcats did not take charter flights to their games. They do now largely because Cronin raised the money for the charter flights.

“We have to continue to try to improve the infrastructure of our program every year,” Cronin said. “Mike has been trying to do that since he’s been here. I’ve watched him try to improve that in tough economic times. I don’t believe that you should put limitations on what we can do. They’re working at it.”

The Bearcats have had trouble in recent years attracting fans to Fifth Third Arena both because of the growing pains associated with rebuilding the program and the need to improve the seating in the arena.

But Cronin was encouraged by both the size of the crowd of 12,197 that showed up for UC’s final home game of the season against Georgetown and the atmosphere in the building.

“We’ve just got to take that atmosphere and bottle it,” Cronin said. “For me, that was a turning point for our program because of the embracing of our program by our fans. The way the fans came out for Senior Day was awesome. I’ve worked really hard to get us where we are. I want to build on that.”